Data from: Biomechanical factors influencing successful self-righting in the pleurodire turtle, Emydura subglobosa

Self-righting performance is a key ability for most terrestrial animals,
and has been used as a metric of fitness, exhaustion, and thermal limits
in a variety of taxa. However, there is little understanding of the
underlying mechanisms that drive variation in self-righting performance.
To evaluate the mechanical factors that contribute to success versus
failure when animals attempt to self-right, we compared force production
and kinematic behavior in the rigid-bodied, pleurodire turtle Emydura
subglobosa between successful and unsuccessful self-righting efforts. We
found that the moment exerted during efforts to roll the body, and the
velocity of that roll, are the primary drivers behind self-righting
success (i.e., turtles that self-righted successfully produced both larger
moments and faster rolls than turtles that failed). In contrast, the angle
at which the head was directed to lever the body, and the extent of yaw
that was incorporated in addition to roll, had little impact on the
likelihood of success. These results show that specific performance
metrics can predict the ability of animals to self-right, providing a
framework for biomimetic applications as well future comparisons to test
for differences in self-righting performance across animals from different
environments, sexes, populations, and species.